Most travel marketers will tell you that developing an effective marketing plan is one of the biggest challenges there is. There’s a lot of rivalry for customers’ attention among the many travel agents, airlines, and hotels out there. This is why many ads that aim to attract tourists fail miserably. They simply fail to pique the audience’s interest. For this reason, we have decided to take a look at seven awesome travel PR campaigns of 2022. 
What is a PR campaign?
To begin, let’s define our terms. Public relations (PR) campaigns consist of coordinated efforts to raise awareness about a certain organization or product. Whether it’s increasing website traffic, bringing awareness to a new product, or raising funds for a good cause, most public relations efforts are there to achieve particular commercial objectives. With a PR campaign in place, companies can schedule activities that contribute to the greater in advance. Furthermore, a solid plan of action for the dissemination of information is essential for every public relations effort. Companies need to develop a message that resonates with their target market. That is why they need to pick the best avenues for spreading their message. Strong PR campaigns can help brands build strong relationships with the public.
Why a PR campaign is necessary
The best public relations campaigns provide a welcome break from the constant barrage of sales pitches and calls to action that customers face on a daily basis. A public relations campaign provides consumers with information on a company’s products without any sales or promotional pitches. When companies remove obstacles (such as typical marketing), customers’ defences are down, and they are more open to business.
According to experts at moverstech.com, if companies implement good PR campaigns, they can help customers overcome their personal “ad barriers.” In fact, campaigns are about much more than simply the goods and services companies provide. Therefore, without further ado, here are the seven awesome travel PR campaigns of 2022.
1. Iceland’s Out-Horse Your Email Campaign
Since the end of the Covid 19 crisis, millions of people have resumed their travel plans. This has allowed Iceland to capitalize on the people’s desire for a tranquil getaway. As far as tourist PR campaigns go, Out-Horse Your Email is the undisputed champion. The country’s tourist agency trained horses to walk on a gigantic keyboard that was sturdy enough to support a horse. As visitors enjoy their time in Iceland, they may kick back and let the horses handle their emails. The point is to demonstrate the paramount significance of taking a break from one’s hectic life at home in order to reward oneself with a relaxing vacation abroad.
Iceland’s Out campaign demonstrated the power of email marketing with their campaign.
2. British Airways—Weird Reasons Why People Travel
British Airways’ A British Original campaign, which debuted on more than 500 billboards around the UK in 2022, aimed to highlight the unusual motivations for international travel. Everything from “because this weather stinks” and “I’ve had a ring in my pocket long enough” to “mischief” and “olives the size of my real fist” falls under this category. The campaign’s goal is to show that there are numerous valid reasons for individuals to travel and to stress that each one is significant.
3. United—Juneteenth Flight
For the second time, the United States recognized Juneteenth as a national holiday in 2022. United’s celebration included renowned personalities like Opal Lee, an activist who is 95 years old, and Captain Tomica Adams, a pilot who launched the first Black flight instructor training program in the US Air Force. Once again, the airline sought to inspire people to celebrate diverse cultures and to encourage people to appreciate diversity within their own communities. This PR campaign has proven that brand affinity extends beyond a company’s services or goods. It showed that conveying what a brand stands for may be just as vital as the commercial aims.
United demonstrated that a brand’s message is just as important as its product or service.
4. Tourism Quebec—Blind Tourist
The province of Quebec is known for its robust culture of outdoor recreation. However, the objective of Tourism Quebec was to show that there is more to a vacation than what meets the eye. With their PR campaign, Tourism Quebec intended to provide a smorgasbord of sensations, with sight playing a secondary role in the experience. This advertisement has a great storyline that goes along with it. It challenges travelers to explore the world with an open heart and an unrestrained curiosity, regardless of their limitations.
5. Travel Oregon
The PR campaign that Travel Oregon has produced has received widespread acclaim. One example of Travel Oregon’s innovative use of print, sponsored posts, social media, banner advertisements, and video is a robotic fish that acts as a tour guide. Additionally, they have created a video in which they reimagine the US State as an “adventure dreamland.” That being said, what makes this video idea so good is that they created it in the style of Studio Ghibli animation. This campaign showcases how important brand storytelling can be for creating great PR.
6. Preply—Most Mispronounced Travel Destinations
It’s part of the adventure to explore a new place, chat with the people, and eventually muller the pronunciation of a word so horribly that they have no idea what you’re saying. To address this issue, Preply launched a campaign that mines Google search data to identify the most often mispronounced tourist locations of 2022. The French city of Cannes came at the top, followed by the River Thames in the United Kingdom and Yosemite National Park in the United States. This travel PR campaign is hilarious, but it also serves a useful purpose by teaching people how to pronounce some of the world’s most exotic travel destinations.
Mispronunciations are amusing and can be used to create an interesting PR campaign.
7. Hong Kong Tourism Board—Timelooper
And the last of the seven awesome travel PR campaigns of 2022 is The Hong Kong Tourism Board’s Timelooper. This virtual reality (VR) time travel experience demonstrates to potential visitors that time travel in Hong Kong is an exciting and interesting activity. Through this VR experience, viewers may visit Hong Kong in the 1960s and see kung fu fights on Hollywood Road, planes arriving at Kai Tan Airport, and more.
Conclusion
Now that we have covered the seven awesome travel PR campaigns of 2022, you can see how powerful they can be. With the help of a stellar PR strategy, companies may get more respect from their target demographics. But not just that—they also help strengthen and increase the recognition of Brands among their respective consumer bases.
